This year, the bishops of Minnesota are hosting an exciting event in St. Paul March 9 called Catholics at the Capitol. With critical issues such as the legalization of assisted suicide and persistent family poverty at stake, Catholics concerned with life and human dignity cannot afford to miss it.

The problem, Collett said, is that “dignity” as used by some governing documents — including the constitutions of Italy, Germany and Japan — is divorced from the source of dignity, God, and presented as something that can be granted, rather than something that is inherent to the human person, as the Church believes.

Since the dawn of time, people have desired to find meaning and purpose for their lives. In our age of competing and conflicting philosophies, Catholics unabashedly proclaim a deep confidence in knowing the way, the truth and the life. We fully believe that we are created out of love, for love. We are made for joy.

Embryos are as human as you and I; they’re simply younger, smaller and more vulnerable. They ought to be accorded the same respect that every human being deserves, as a matter of basic human rights. Human dignity demands nothing less.

Pope Francis formally began his ministry as bishop of Rome and as pope by pledging to protect the Catholic Church, the dignity of each person and the beauty of creation, just like St. Joseph protected Mary and Jesus.

A number of years ago the Minneapolis paper carried a weekly feature in the religion section called “The Seeker.” Each week the reporter would attend a different church, synagogue, mosque or temple and report on the experience.

I’m very blessed to work at St. Joseph’s Hospital, which supports a faith-based work environment. Where some individuals might not be able to express their faith or talk about their faith, I’m able to do that.

My faith is grounded in works of charity. It goes back to the seventh grade. It was in a religion class and I got in a bit of a tiff with the pastor over buying a bell for the church. I was watching people on farms and in the community becoming overwhelmed with poverty and I felt we should be doing more with that.